Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an input support apparatus that supports input of music notes, and to an input support method therefor in the field of computer music (commonly referred to as “desk top music” (DTM)).
Description of the Related Art
In recent years, pupils have been given opportunities to compose music in a music class in elementary and middle schools. In such a composition class a teacher may, for example, provide a chord progression as an accompaniment over which pupils create a melody that matches the chord progression. In doing so, the teacher may provide to the pupils a handout that contains names of the chords that make up the chord progression of the accompaniment along with information on corresponding constituent music notes for each of the chords. The teacher may further provide advice, such as “in a measure that contains accompaniment chord C major, select a note from among the constituent music notes of the chord C major, namely, the notes C, E, and G, to create a melody”. When a note is selected from among constituent music notes, to create a melody, for each chord comprising a part of the accompaniment chord progression, consonant notes will be chosen, thereby avoiding dissonance between the melody and the accompaniment and thus enabling a natural sounding piece of music to be created.
In the above-described example, a drawback exists in that an amount of work that is required of the teacher may be substantial. For example, the teacher will need to prepare in advance handouts in which accompaniment chords along with their constituent music notes are set out.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-259151 (hereinafter referred to as “Patent Literature 1”) discloses an automatic accompaniment apparatus. Keys of this automatic accompaniment apparatus are each provided with a light-emitting means. The automatic accompaniment apparatus sequentially retrieves chord data of chords to be played in synchronization at a designated tempo. According to the retrieved chord data, the automatic accompaniment apparatus causes light-emitting means of to-be-pressed keys to glow at a correct timing so as to guide a user's key-pressing operation.
However, it is not suitable to use the automatic accompaniment apparatus of Patent Literature 1 for composing music. This is because, although the automatic accompaniment apparatus of Patent Literature 1 enables a user to identify a specific key to press at a correct timing when playing a piece of music, no information is provided to the user on a chord progression of an accompaniment piece of music.